This invention relates to pressure vessels, and particularly to decompression chambers used to protect divers suffering from decompression syndrome (bends). Fixed metal decompression chambers are usually located at permanent sites in hospitals and medical centres. However, since delay in treatment can worsen the condition and lead in some cases to death, portable decompression chambers have been developed.
In order to reduce the weight of portable chambers still further and make them stowable for ease of carrying in helicopters and small boats, collapsible chambers have been developed in which the chamber is a flexible bag which becomes inflated by the chamber pressure. One such chamber, also known as a hyperbaric chamber, is described in GB-A-2,164,984.
The present invention is concerned with the construction of a pressure vessel of the type having a flexible wall and also discloses a linking element for connecting two pressure vessels so that, for example, a diver temporarily under treatment in a portable decompression chamber can be transferred to a fixed decompression chamber without possible fatal loss of pressure.